Sinead Joyce was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2009 at the age of 38 and then with secondary incurable breast cancer in January 2015. Since then she has been through two more harsh chemo regimes, lost her hair twice, had a mastectomy and is currently in the position where the drug she needs to extend her life, PALBOCICLIB is not available to her as she was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer before this drug became available for a secondary diagnosis. NICE guidelines only released this drug to newly diagnosed secondary breast cancer cases from 2017. As Sinead was rediagnosed before 2017 and she has had hormone treatment she does not meet the guidelines, even though her consultants agree this would be the treatment option they would like to prescribe for her on the NHS, but they cannot because of NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) guidelines, although she can access this privately through the hospital pharmacy at a cost of £2950 per month plus dispensary and admin fees.

Sinead's only chance to stay alive to be with her two sons (Conor 19 and Pearse 15) is to get Palbociclib drug.

We, her friends have convinced her to allow us to fund raise the money she needs to get the treatment here in NI privately.

Sinead has worked as a Medical Secretary for the NHS for 24 years and is a loving devoted mother. We are proud and honoured to call her our friend. She is an inspiration to all who know her. Sinead is a very strong willed and courageous person and is determined to fight this decision in order for her to be able to access these drugs via the NHS.

So here we are asking you to ditch your Friday night takeaway or bottle of wine or even your latte and donate that money to our Sinead. This will extend her life!

We have every faith that people will help Sinead to live, not only for her two sons but to be able to fight to get these drugs for our people. One in two of us will get cancer, it could be you needing these drugs.

First of all may I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all your kind donations. Without your support my campaign would not have received the media attention which in turn has led to the Health Board agreeing to fund Pablociclib drug for 4 months initially. As the Board have only agreed for 4 months funding so far, this money will be held in the Go Fund Me Account until I receive confirmation that the drug will be funded indefinitely if shown to be effective. My next CT scan will be in Feb/March 2019. After results of scan I will further update you on use of funds and whether I may need to use some of it for alternative non-funded cancer treatment. In the event that the Board doesn't fund the treatment after the 4 month period then this money will be used to pay for further treatments of Pablociclib at the cost of £2950 plus admin costs per month. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in supporting this campaign and the Oncology team at the Belfast City Hospital who have fully supported my funding request.

I was at my hospital appointment today and you will be delighted to hear that I have been granted funding, initially for 4 months from the Health Board !! My next CT scan is in February 2019 so this will tell if drug working. Needless to say myself and my family are overjoyed !! This is the best Christmas present I could ever ask for and my prayers have been answered.

I am thanking you all for your generous donations and for funding my treatment to date! Without your help and support I could not have got through this very tough time. May I say that your support and love has kept me going because at times I didn't know if I was strong enough to carry on.

I have just completed 1 month's treatment and all going well so far and I am tolerating the new drug ok. I start the next batch of tablets on 1st January 2019.

We are putting a freeze on donations at present and will update you after Christmas as to what is happening with the fund.